EU gets first-ever request to authorise sale of lab-grown meat

3 months ago 23

In an EU first, French company Gourmey has requested a pre-market authorisation for lab-grown foie gras in the 27-member bloc amid a heated debate among European governments over food innovation.

On July 26, Gourmey, a Paris-based company specialising in cultivated food, announced that it had filed five pre-market applications for its cell-based duck products with food safety authorities in the EU, Switzerland, the UK, Singapore, and the US.

The company’s flagship product will be a “new choice for foie gras aficionados”, a press release stated.

“The premium segment has always been at the forefront of food trends, where the most exciting innovations occur. We are witnessing thrilling commercial traction for our first product in many regions where chefs want to keep serving high-quality foie gras,” Nicolas Morin-Forest, Gourmey’s CEO, said in the same press statement.

Morin-Forest added that he looks forward to working with regulators to ensure compliance with safety requirements and expressed confidence that his products will meet the “highly demanding standards” set by EU authorities.

Cultivated or lab-grown meat is produced using a sample of genuine animal cells that grow in a nutrient-rich environment, forming muscle, fat, and connective tissues.

Cultured products typically use bovine foetal serum, which involves the death of a cow and its embryo, making them ethically problematic for vegetarians and vegans. However, Gourmey claims not to use any animal-derived components during cultivation, making the foie gras slaughter-free.

Moreover, Gourmey said it had conducted an external study of the company’s environmental footprint at scale production, showing that it would be significantly lower than conventionally produced foie gras.

EU controversy

Lab-grown meat is regulated in the EU as a “novel food,” a legal definition that includes products not significantly present in Europeans’ diets before May 1997. Under EU law, a company seeking to place a novel food on the EU market must submit an authorisation application to the European Commission.

Nevertheless, the agriculture ministers of France, Italy, and Austria presented a note last January to the EU Council questioning whether the novel foods regulation was suitable for cultivated meat and calling for a stricter assessment of cultured products.

They viewed these innovations as a threat to “genuine production methods” and argued that EFSA, the EU food safety authority, should issue dedicated guidelines for assessing lab-grown meat, similar to those used for new drugs and pharmaceutical products.

The note, also supported by Czech, Cypriot, Greek, Hungarian, Luxembourg, Lithuanian, Maltese, Romanian, and Slovak ministers, called on the Commission to launch a “public consultation” on lab-grown meat.

More recently, Hungary, which took over the rotating Presidency of the EU Council on 1 July, proposed a debate in the Council over the possible negative impact of novel foods on Europe’s culinary traditions.

Budapest said that farmed meat and dairy products remain a cornerstone of European food culture, noting “citizens’ scepticism” towards new types of food.